Managing Files

Details

Last Updated on Tuesday, 11 June 2013 20:44

Introduction

The CalcCache contains files that can always be recalculated. Therefore the CalcCache folder (and subfolders) may be deleted without losing relevant data or information. If your hard disk space is limited, you probably need to delete more often CalcCaches. The only disadvantage of deleting a CalcCache is that it will take more time to recalculate requested results.

The following advices are useful in working the CalcCache folders.

1. Keep files Compressed (Also applies to the SourceDataDir)

If possible, put the CalcCache to a folder on a disk with an NTFS partition. The NTFS disk management system allows you to keep files in a compressed format on disk. The following steps are needed to store files compressed:

1. Browse in the Windows Explorer to your LocalDataDir, or to the overruled location of the CalcCacheDir in the config.ini.
2. View the properties (right mouse click), a following dialog appears (Windows 7 layout):
   
3. Click the Advanced button, a following dialog appears (Windows 7 layout):

   

4. Activate Compress contents to save disk space (third checkbox) and deactivate Indexing Service (second checkbox). Indexing on CalcCache folders is not useful and makes you system slow. In case the selected folder already contains files and subfolders, a following dialog appears (Windows 7 layout):

   

5. Choose the option as indicated, so including subfolders and files

Dependent on the amount of data in the folder and subfolders, the process to compress files can take some time.

The advantage of storing files compressed is that the amount of disk space is saved substantially. Furthermore the GeoDMS can read the compressed files faster, as less disk access is needed. A small disadvantage is that writing files take some more time, as the data need to be compressed first. But still it is advisable to keep the files compressed on disk.

2. Delete CalcCaches that are not recently used

Each project makes it's own CalcCache and even two, if you use both the Windows 32 and 64 bits GeoDMS version. It is advised to check regularly if projects are still in use and if not, delete the entrire CalcCache to prevent your %LocalDataDir% from becoming very large.

As CalCache files are now stored in multiple subfolders, it is no longer adviced to delete only a selection of files from the CalcCache. Instead, using the FreeData property can help to limit the size of the CalcCache (see next paragraph).

3. Using the FreeData property to keep your CalcCache size limited

By default all large files are stord in the CalcCache, see also Cached Files. To keep the CalcCache folder size limited it can be useful to configure FreeData = "True" as property definition to the root item of a configuration. The property works recursive, this means it applies to all items in the configuration. For items that are time consuming to calculate, this can be overruled with the FreeData = "False" property definition. These specific items will then still be stored in the CalcCache.

This way of configuring keeps your CalcCache size limited and can be even faster, as less disk I/O is needed, but also requests some knowlegde on which expressions are time consuming to calculate.